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HOWARD M. PETERS
Cupertino, Calif.
I still follow The Express.
On Sept. 12, The Express reported that the Liberty-Curtin Elementary School building is to be replaced.
It is now more cost effective to build anew than to restore and reuse.
How times have changed.
Can another use be found for the Liberty-Curtin School Building in Blanchard?
From 1946-1948, I attended 1st and 2nd grade at the Hubbard School in Beech Creek Township taught by Dora Dunlap, who had taught my mother years earlier. It is still standing now as a hunting camp. Then it was a typical one room-country school, with two grades taught in the same room, a coal furnace in the back, drinking water delivered on the school bus and outside privies. My 3rd and 4th grades were at the similar one-room Haagen School -- still standing as a private residence -- and 5th and 6th grades at the one-room Sugar Run School -- still standing as a private residence.
When I was elected to the Keystone Central Foundation Alumni Hall of Fame from Bald Eagle-Nittany HS (1958) in February 2022, in my remarks I mentioned my family connection to the brick Beech Creek Elementary School built about 1910. The Express reported about 1939 that when the local banks refused to purchase the bonds to erect the Beech Creek Elementary School, the five sons -- George, John, William, Charles and Elmer -- of local farmers Caspar and Philipina Peter -- my great-grandparents and family to many Clinton County residents -- purchased all the school bonds. That brick building still stands now as a museum.
The Hubbard School photo is found in The Express' 150th Celebration of Clinton County edition in 1990.
Check with the historian at Ross Library for the exact cite for the Express 1939 article.